Married couple, how to start? (she only wants to drive with me)

Yeah, had to open their own cdl schools in order to get more drivers.
Maybe 3 or 4 dozen cdl schools running now.

 

I sent my kid sister, who was loading planes at the airport for FedEx to the community college to get her CDL. The price was $1200. And she has no restrictions on her license.

I believe that she went to school for 7 weeks.

 

@Nahbrown -- the pay & benefits at Chinatown's suggestions above (ODFL, & YRC) will probably be A LOT better than the small firm referred by your cousin.

Also--does your cousin's employer offer a pension? Free health insurance?

Something else to think about--with a possible recession looming--will your cousin's employer have enough freight base to keep everyone there on the payroll?

The takeaway: larger carriers (like ODFL and YRC) will have the freight base to weather even a deep, long recession--with smaller carriers, things are dicier when times get tough.

--Lual

 

A couple who live on a sailboat full-time share 4 perks and 7 brutally honest downsides to life on the sea

 

$.50 for team? Them's POVERTY WAGES. Our small company's solo drivers make more than that. ODFL starts teams at $.7259 (goes up from there).

Why would you be thinking about a company at $.5 when you could be looking at one at $.7259 with another pension?

BTW: Retired Army here. I'm earning a 401(k) these days (not an actual pension). If I had the same opportunity to make similar money to what I am now with another pension, I'd be all over that like a pack of dogs on a 3-legged cat. You have the opportunity to make nearly 50% more and earn a pension. If you don't like it, fine, go with your cousin's recommendation. If you do? You just won the lottery.

 

I'll definitely be following this thread. I've been driving for 4 months, and now my wife had decided to get her CDL. She just enrolled in a program and we're in the process of securing funding for it. Once she's done, we hope to team drive asap. Like the OP, our only non-negotiable point is that I be her trainer. She will not go out alone with a stranger, male or female, for any length of time.

 

By the time she gets her cdl, you'll have enough experience to be her trainer with a company that uses teams.